Dirty Little Secrets (Dirty Little Secrets #1) (18 page)

“We moved to a…a not-so-nice area of town. My mom was always worried about my education; she wanted me to have the best. So, we lived in this shitty, hole-in-the-wall apartment, and every penny my dad had to spare went to private school tuition. When I’d get home from school in the afternoon, Amelia would invite me over, and she’d make sure I had dinner, because my dad was always working nights. She had a son, Marcus. He and I have been best friends ever since.”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with you being in some kind of trouble, Mia.”
 

I sigh. “I told you it was complicated. I’m trying to make it as uncomplicated as possible.”

“Okay,” he breathes. “Okay.”
 

“This building, it was in terrible shape. It was run-down, in disrepair, and it was owned by this shady businessman who was rich as hell, but owned a lot of slummy buildings that he rented to people who were down on their luck, or who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. He cut corners all the time, but sometimes things would be broken for months before he’d get around to hiring a repair man, if he ever even bothered to do that. We filed formal complaints with the city, but this guy had so many officials in his pocket that none of the complaints ever made a difference. It’s amazing what money can do to make people turn the other way when you’re not doing the right thing.”

Caleb’s eyes widen, like I actually smacked him, then he looks down at his hands. I reach out and clasp his hand with mine.
 

“Hey,” I tell him. “I don’t mean-”

“I know,” he replies, and he gives me a halfhearted smile. “It’s true, what you said.”
 

“I went off to college in Massachusetts, on a full scholarship. I didn’t get home often—we didn’t have spare money for the airfare—but when I graduated last year, I moved back to Chicago to be closer to him. The building had really gone to hell. I tried to convince him to let me move us out to a nicer place, but he wouldn’t have it. I mean, I couldn’t have afforded much better at the time…I was just picking up clients, but I could’ve afforded better than that.”

Caleb is gradually moving closer, leaning into me. I’m guessing he’s starting to think that maybe this story isn’t as bad as he anticipated, but I’m just now getting there. He’s cradling my hand in his now, rubbing his thumbs in a soothing circuit across my wrist.
 

“I saw news of the explosion on the television,” I begin with a sniffle. “I was meeting with a potential client in a cafe. I looked up, and I just…I was in shock. It seems as if my dad died right away. I hope he did, at least. Amelia, she was on her way home from the grocery store, so she didn’t take the brunt of the impact, but she had burns all over her body. They ruled it a faulty gas line, but…we complained about so much shit in that building over the years. It was due to neglect, I know it was, but the owner—Jack Kemp—he was pretty much untouchable.”

“Your friend Marcus, was he-”

“No,” I reply, shaking my head. “No, he wasn’t there. Anyway, Kemp gave our families a small stipend. It was enough for me to pay for my dad’s funeral, but not much else, considering we had lost everything. There were a few survivors of the blast, but they died within a few days after the explosion. Amelia, she’s the only one who survived.

“Unfortunately for her, she didn’t have any insurance, and what little help Marcus and I were able to find for her wasn’t enough to cover her through the end of her treatment, if there ever
is
an end of her treatment. It had only been four months when I…did what I did, and her bills were already more than she could ever pay. Her apartment blew up; everything she had was gone, and she’d never be able to get out of that debt. How can a person lose everything twice?

“A few ambulance chasers came to Marcus, wanting him to sue, but the terms were more beneficial to them than they would’ve been to Amelia and Marcus, and Kemp has enough money to tie a case up in court for years, and it might not have even gone their way when it was all said and done. She needed to be moved to a specialized care facility, and she and Marcus needed the money now, not five years from now, or whenever a settlement would be reached.”
 

A look of understanding flits across Caleb’s face, melting away whatever anger was left.
 

“Christ, Mia. You stole the money?”
 

I lower my head, and nod. I can’t look him in the eye, I’m too ashamed.
 

“And Marcus let you?”
 

The shame I was feeling dissolves quickly, and I look up, glaring at Caleb. “Nobody
lets
me do anything.”
 

“He just stood back while you…what, ran for your life? Is Kemp the one who’s after you?”

“He didn’t stand back, he…Look, I made a mistake, and I left an electronic trail when I stole that money. One of Kemp’s IT people traced it back to me. What’s the point in implicating Marcus when my fingerprints were all over the crime scene? Besides, it was my idea.”

“And Kemp isn’t smart enough to put two and two together and figure out why you stole from him?”
 

I shrug. “He doesn’t seem to have put it together so far. I’ve been in touch with Marcus. I talked to him just yesterday, and he’s okay.”
 

“Does he know where you are?”
 

“No,” I reply. “I’m not that stupid.”
 

“If Kemp isn’t after you, then who is?”
 

“A man named Andre Privya. Kemp hired him.”
 

Caleb shakes his head a little, like he’s trying to make sense of everything I just told him. “How do you know that?”
 

“I was tracking his communications.”
 

Caleb lets out this unbelieving huff of air. “He just hired someone to kill you? Over the phone?”
 

“No, he never said kill. He said ‘find,’ although the killing might have been implied. I was surprised he was so brazen about it, but I guess when you get away with so much for so long, you feel comfortable pushing the limits.”

“How much did you take?”
 

I swallow. I’ve come this far, no sense in trying to lie about it now. “Two million dollars.”
 

Sliding his hands through his hair, Caleb bows his head, taking a deep breath.
 

“I didn’t do it all at once, and I didn’t take it all from the same account, but like I said, I made a mistake covering my tracks, and here I am.”
 

“And your computer beeping means…what, exactly? That he found you?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “I had been really careful about not using my real name. I checked into the hotels under aliases, I used cash for everything. I used a burner phone to call Marcus. I didn’t want to give him any way to track me, but I put an alert on my own name anyway. It pinged last night because there were pictures taken of us at the benefit, and someone gave the press my name.”
 

Caleb starts bouncing his leg again, and then he stands, and he gives all of his pent-up rage an outlet by sliding his hand across the coffee table, and knocking everything on top of it onto the floor. “God damn it!”
 

I cringe at the sound of breaking glass, and look over at him.
 

“I’m the one who gave them your name. They asked, and I…”

“You didn’t know,” I say soothingly. I don’t want him to have even an ounce of guilt about that. “You didn’t know, Caleb.”
 

He turns, and oh, that anger is back.
 

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you before now. Now we’re on defense, and it’s better to work on offense.”
 

I don’t miss the ‘we’ in that sentence, but I can’t let him be a part of this. I
won’t
.
 

“I don’t know what being on offense feels like anymore. And I didn’t tell you, because how would that look? What would you think of me, if I had just met you and told you I had stolen money from a crooked millionaire who basically killed my father, and was responsible for ruining the life of my surrogate mother?”
 

Either he doesn’t have an answer for me, or the only answer he can come up with isn’t a good one. Not that I’d blame him one bit for running away after an admission like that. I wouldn’t blame him for running away now, but it doesn’t seem like he’s going to do that.

“Did you think you could just stay here forever? Start a new life?”
 

I shrug. “I came here to get away from the situation, to give myself some time where I didn’t have to look over my shoulder, and could take a breather to figure out how to make things better.”
 

“There is no making things better when someone’s sent a
hitman
after you, Mia. And you were just pretending it didn’t happen?”
 

“No,” I reply, my voice shaky. “There’s no forgetting something like that, but I came here, and I met you…and you made me want something different. You…you made me hope I could have it. I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t want you to look at me the way you’re looking at me now.”
 

“How am I looking at you?”
 

“Like you don’t even know me,” I say, not blaming him one bit for that. “Like you’re disgusted with me.”
 

“Not for the reason that you think.”
 

“Not because I’m a liar? Because I’m a thief?”
 

He glares at me. “You’re neither of those things, and no, that’s not it.”
 

Caleb rubs his hand across the back of his neck, then turns and looks out the window. He’s quiet for a few minutes, probably trying to figure out how he’s going to end this. I decide to make it easy on him; it seems like the very least I can do.
 

“I’m going to go get dressed,” I say, tugging on the hem of the shirt that I’m wearing. “I’ll be out of here in a minute.”
 

Caleb laughs bitterly, then turns and faces me, arms folded across his chest. “Where would you even go?”
 

“Back to Chicago,” I tell him. “To get this over with.”
 

“No you’re not,” he replies, walking toward the hallway. “You’re staying right here.”
 

“And what…you’re leaving?”
 

“I’m going to get dressed, and then I’m going to go work out what’s going on in my head. I want you here when I come back.” His eyes soften then, and he looks at me tenderly. “Don’t go getting any crazy ideas about turning yourself in, or leaving town. We’re going to talk about this some more, I just need some time to think.”

Caleb disappears down the hallway. He’s gone for two minutes at the most, and walks back into the living room fully dressed. It seems like he’s cooled down a little, and when he stops in front of me, he cradles my cheek with his hand. It’s the most comfort I’ve felt all morning.
 

“Promise me you won’t leave,” he says.
 

“I’ll be here when you get back.”
 

He gives me a small smile, as the pad of his thumb slides across my cheekbone.
 

When he reaches the front door, he turns and says, “Everything’s going to be okay, Mia.”
 

I want to believe him, but this is the farthest from okay I’ve been in a long, long time.
 

I wait for Caleb to return to the apartment for what feels like forever. I keep a watchful eye on the clock, which just makes the time pass more slowly. He left just before noon, and the sun is beginning to set now. I don’t want to panic, but I’ve never been out of contact with him for this long, and it’s difficult not to imagine that something terrible has happened to him in the hours that he’s been away.
 

He was in the pictures that were published of me last night. His name was in the captions, right next to mine. It’d be one thing for Privya to come after me, but if he somehow hurt Caleb…

No, I’m not going to think like that right now. My laptop is open, my tracking program is active. There haven’t been any new alerts since this morning. Caleb’s okay, he’s just taking some time like he said he was. Nothing has happened to him.
 

Maybe if I want it badly enough, it’ll be true.
 

* * * * *

Caleb still isn’t home as the clock strikes 10, and I’m starting to get pretty desperate.
 

So desperate, in fact, that I’ve got Jack Kemp’s cell phone number dialed on my phone, with my thumb hovering just above the “call” button. The waiting is killing me, and I just…I can’t deal with Caleb getting involved. I don’t want any issues that Kemp and Privya have with me to be taken out on Caleb.
 

I want this over with. Now. I always thought that I’d feel better about things once Caleb found out about what I had done, but no. It fills me with an anxiety that I can’t even explain, and it makes me want him in my sight every second of every day. If I thought I was worried thinking Privya was after
me
, it’s nothing compared to the possibility that he could go after Caleb.
 

Only the fact that I told Caleb I’d be here when he got back is keeping me in place. I’m not going to break my word.
 

He finally walks through the door at 10:15, and I nearly jump out of my seat. When he turns the corner into the dining room, where I’m sitting, he looks like he’s been awake for days. His eyes are tired, and his hair is all disheveled, like he’s been running his fingers through it all day.
 

“Caleb?” I want to ask him where he’s been and why he looks so worn out, but I’m not sure how he’ll react.
 

He holds out his hand. “C’mon. Let’s go to bed, it’s been a long day.”
 

I look at him like he’s lost his mind. “You can’t come home after being gone all day, after having the conversation that we had, and just ask me to go to bed.”